1--What is the title of your latest release?
LEGENDS OF GOLD
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A search for lost treasure…a heroine with a long-lost family that threatens to upend her happy life after years of struggle and a hero home from sea to return to his family ranch who can’t decide if really loves her or just wants to protect her…but either way, he’s determined to marry her.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The Two Harts Ranch in north central California was inspired by a trip I took to Yosemite National Park.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Oh yes. Tilda has lived her life on the edge of survival and brings a toughness and vulnerability to life that is inspiring.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Lonely, determined, teacher
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I researched naval explorers from three hundred years before my book takes place…and left behind a treasure.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I do both. I edit as a write, then go back and edit again.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Tricky…to celebrate warm weather finally showing up, I’m going to say ice cream
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I write in my recliner in my living room on a laptop. That’s it. Nothing fancy.
10--Who is an author you admire?
I love reading so I can’t begin to write a list. I’ll say Karen Witemeyer
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
I’m in love with the book A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich. A pioneer woman who sacrificed all her childhood dreams for love, and though she never made her own dreams come true, she passed those dreams down to her children in a way she found more fulfilling that the dreams themselves.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
My ‘call’ story is spectacular. I was attending the American Christian Fiction Writer’s conference and, as they did every year back then, Barbour Publishing stood up to announce a contract to an unpublished author…and they called my name. I walked up in front of 300 applauding authors to accept my contract. It remains one of the finest moments of my life.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I read widely in most genres. I love romance novels, particularly Regency romances. I love romantic suspense. I read a lot of detective fiction. Lots of historical westerns.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
While You Were Sleeping, a heartbreakingly lonely young Sandra Bullock is mistaken for the fiancé of a man whose life she saves by pulling him, unconscious, out of the path of an oncoming train, and is pulled into his family while he’s in a coma…and she can’t give them up…all the while knowing as soon as her ‘fiancé’ wakes up, it’s all over.
15--What is your favorite season?
I suppose summer. We boat on the Missouri River. My grown children and their grandchildren come home often to boat with us. That’s summertime fun.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I have four adult daughters and the gift I ask from them is “The Gift of Time.” I go out to lunch with them and that’s it. One perfect lunch with my girls. I see them a lot but always with my spectacular grandchildren around that their very nice husbands. That one lunch with only them is precious.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I watch a lot of true crime…which is ridiculous but for some odd reason I find it very entertaining. I watch almost no TV. The last movie I really loved was Top Gun Maverick.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Well, I didn’t get in my current shape by being picky…but right now, I’m a big fan of this little Chinese restaurant in a nearby town. They really can’t make anything there I don’t love but Shrimp Fried Rice is a current favorite.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Read, nap, watch podcasts, play solitaire on my computer…I know, like it’d kill me to take a walk now and then.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
LEGENDS OF GOLD is book #2 in my Golden State Treasures Series, book #3, RICHES BEYOND MEASURE, is coming in October.
Golden State Treasure #2
After years of solitude, Tilda Muirhead's life takes an unexpected twist when she takes a position teaching at the orphanage on Two Harts Ranch following her cross-country pursuit of two brothers obsessed with a treasure map left by their adventurous grandfather. Tilda is now tasked with educating the mischievous brothers, who are bent on remaining out west until they find the hoped-for treasure. Then a man named Ben arrives, claiming to be her own long-lost brother. Raised as an orphan with no memory of her family, Tilda is both fascinated and wary of Ben's sudden interest in finding her.
When Ben's motives grow increasingly suspect, rancher Josh Hart suggests Tilda and the brothers set off on a quest with him that aims to protect Tilda while unearthing the map's secrets. As they navigate the rugged wilderness, Tilda becomes captivated by the history behind the map, though she doubts it leads to anything more than old artifacts. Yet danger looms ever closer, and Tilda and Josh must rely on faith and their blossoming love to navigate the treacherous path ahead.
From bestselling author Mary Connealy comes an action-packed Western of family, faith, and the quest to belong.
Christian Historical | Christian Romance [Bethany House Publishers, On Sale: June 17, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9780764244407 / eISBN: 9781493450732]
Mary Connealy is an award-winning, bestselling author known for her fun and lively historical romances. An author, teacher, and journalist, Mary lives on an eastern Nebraska ranch with her cowboy husband and has four daughters and two grandchildren.
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